Homer J. Simpson
Well-known member
I recently made an attempt at finding out who made the single-line Kluson-style tuners (and also other hardware) Tokai used in the late 70s/early 80s. People reflexively say "Gotoh" whenever that question comes up and that's kind of understandable, they all look superficially the same. I'm not so convinced about that though, the only indication that they were made by Gotoh is their strange and unexpectedly sophisticated design!
F-Style Tuners (Springy Sound, Goldstar Sound, Custom Edition...)
First off, let's see what the originals look like on the side we usually don't get to see:
Original (modern, patent approved 1958) Kluson single-line tuner
Obviously just molded sheet metal attached to a molded sheet metal base plate with bent little lugs. That's also what modern "vintage" tuners used by Fender (partially MIC by Ping Works), Korean (Hanchang or Jin-Ho) tuners and of course Gotoh SD91 made in Japan look like - the base plate on the latter does not give away much except that it's "JAPAN" :
Modern Gotoh MIJ SD-91 tuners
Vintage Tokai inline machine heads (Kluson style)
Tokai catalog: "Tokai Kluson type peg, comparable to Rotomatic high precision pegs"
"Bushing type is original Tokai only"
I recently scolded a seller for advertising "80s NOS made in Japan" Tokai tuners made exactly like the examples on top - they were actually made in Korea by Hanchang and acquired in a parts sale at Tokai. They seemingly didn't know how 80s Tokai tuners look like, so they didn't realize that they also bought actual 80s 6-inline Tokai tuners (which they are selling for less than the faux MIJ Tokai tuners lol):
Tokai NOS anodized 80s tuner
Telling from the black anodizing they are probably mid-80s tuners, but they share the same construction as the regular Tokai "Deluxe" tuners:
Actual vintage Tokai "Deluxe" tuner
So what's special about them? They are clearly meant to improve upon the very basic Kluson design:
1. Instead of the molded sheet metal base plates, they have what looks like die-cast metal bases with a flat surface that doesn't leave so much of an imprint on the finish like the original design.
2. That cast base plate adds a bushing sleeve that automatically centers the tuner and its post exactly in the middle of the bore like the more sophisticated Rotomatic design (that's also what the catalog text was meant to say). There is no chance that the post could be sitting slightly off-center in the bore, causing friction in the top bushing.
3. They have an "alignment pin". The original construction is relying on the 7 tiny screws and the tuners catching each other's edges for alignment and rotational stability against the string pull.
The "alignment pins" go into corresponding holes in the headstock:
Spaghetti logo Springy Sound headstock back with alignment holes
80s Goldstar headstock detail
The design prevents problems caused by little imprecisions during assembly and possibly saves time, there is no way to have the tuners mounted crooked by accident and residue play around the post axis is impossible. Sure, the original design works fine for more than 70 years now and the alignment pin seems almost overdone in this inline configuration but to me, that all represents much the typical "Japanese touch" that made us love these guitars.
Tokai Deluxe tuners with the pins shaved off - on what model did they use white plastic buttons?
Another thing that jumps into the eye (not) is that there are no markings whatsoever. Gotoh had a way of more often than not leaving little logos or tiny hallmarks even on their OEM stuff - but not always, so the absence of markings doesn't say "not made by Gotoh". But it also doesn't say the opposite.
What did the competition use?
Tokai was obviously not the only Japanese company not liking the original Kluson lightweight style. Here's a tuner made for Fernandes:
Fernandes FST tuner
Kanda Shokai obviously used the same supplier as Fernandes, here's some Greco double-line tuners:
Greco double-line Deluxe 6L tuners
Similar looking massive base plates but with different details on them, a much longer integrated base sleeve around the post, no pin and no clue left as to what company may have made them either. My first thought was that there were 2 different companies making this type of tuners, on second thought I figured it more certainly means that the Tokai and Greco/Fernandes tuners were made on different machines or with different casting molds, and these machines could have been located in the same factory.
Other F-style machine head models and prices
Back to the Tokai vintage tuners - thanks to Sigmania's 1981 parts catalog we can see that the the tuners were not exactly cheap:
Not sure I'm calculating that right, but at an average exchange rate of 250JP¥ per dollar in 1981, 5,500¥ was $22. That would be $74 MSRP in today's money for the nickel type tuners. A set of comparable (plain, non-locking, non-HAP) Gotoh SD91-05M-N tuners is currently $42-50 street price.
36% more expensive: Tokai "Deluxe" tuners in gold ("S-091")
Going further through the price list, the ST42 Springy and the Silver Stars below the SS48 got the "S-092 Fender type chrome" tuners, which seem to be the just the well-known "trapezoid" tuners inside, but with a more F-like, crest-shaped cap:
"S-092 Fender type chrome" tuners on an SS38
Which companies produced the incredible amount of these tuners, or where they were made remains a mystery, it seems that production may have been outsourced for these early on.
The SS48 and above got the "Rotomatic" style, among us better known as "octagon" tuners. This SS60 is notable for the little Gotoh logos (which are usually absent on those):
Past the "golden" era
Still within the "golden" era, the new original Tokai models increasingly used modern, Schaller/Rotomatic-style sealed tuners, of which some (but not all) clearly show that they were made by Gotoh:
Tokai Custom Edition tuner
At some point yet to be determined (could be the 90s), the cast base plates with their improvements and the alignment holes disappeared on Goldstars and were replaced with original design Kluson-style tuners, now identifiable ("JAPAN") as Gotohs on Japanese guitars and Hanchang (small "HC" stamp on the base plate) on the models made in Korea.
F-Style Tuners (Springy Sound, Goldstar Sound, Custom Edition...)
First off, let's see what the originals look like on the side we usually don't get to see:
Original (modern, patent approved 1958) Kluson single-line tuner
Obviously just molded sheet metal attached to a molded sheet metal base plate with bent little lugs. That's also what modern "vintage" tuners used by Fender (partially MIC by Ping Works), Korean (Hanchang or Jin-Ho) tuners and of course Gotoh SD91 made in Japan look like - the base plate on the latter does not give away much except that it's "JAPAN" :
Modern Gotoh MIJ SD-91 tuners
Vintage Tokai inline machine heads (Kluson style)
Tokai catalog: "Tokai Kluson type peg, comparable to Rotomatic high precision pegs"
"Bushing type is original Tokai only"
I recently scolded a seller for advertising "80s NOS made in Japan" Tokai tuners made exactly like the examples on top - they were actually made in Korea by Hanchang and acquired in a parts sale at Tokai. They seemingly didn't know how 80s Tokai tuners look like, so they didn't realize that they also bought actual 80s 6-inline Tokai tuners (which they are selling for less than the faux MIJ Tokai tuners lol):
Tokai NOS anodized 80s tuner
Telling from the black anodizing they are probably mid-80s tuners, but they share the same construction as the regular Tokai "Deluxe" tuners:
Actual vintage Tokai "Deluxe" tuner
So what's special about them? They are clearly meant to improve upon the very basic Kluson design:
1. Instead of the molded sheet metal base plates, they have what looks like die-cast metal bases with a flat surface that doesn't leave so much of an imprint on the finish like the original design.
2. That cast base plate adds a bushing sleeve that automatically centers the tuner and its post exactly in the middle of the bore like the more sophisticated Rotomatic design (that's also what the catalog text was meant to say). There is no chance that the post could be sitting slightly off-center in the bore, causing friction in the top bushing.
3. They have an "alignment pin". The original construction is relying on the 7 tiny screws and the tuners catching each other's edges for alignment and rotational stability against the string pull.
The "alignment pins" go into corresponding holes in the headstock:
Spaghetti logo Springy Sound headstock back with alignment holes
80s Goldstar headstock detail
The design prevents problems caused by little imprecisions during assembly and possibly saves time, there is no way to have the tuners mounted crooked by accident and residue play around the post axis is impossible. Sure, the original design works fine for more than 70 years now and the alignment pin seems almost overdone in this inline configuration but to me, that all represents much the typical "Japanese touch" that made us love these guitars.
Tokai Deluxe tuners with the pins shaved off - on what model did they use white plastic buttons?
Another thing that jumps into the eye (not) is that there are no markings whatsoever. Gotoh had a way of more often than not leaving little logos or tiny hallmarks even on their OEM stuff - but not always, so the absence of markings doesn't say "not made by Gotoh". But it also doesn't say the opposite.
What did the competition use?
Tokai was obviously not the only Japanese company not liking the original Kluson lightweight style. Here's a tuner made for Fernandes:
Fernandes FST tuner
Kanda Shokai obviously used the same supplier as Fernandes, here's some Greco double-line tuners:
Greco double-line Deluxe 6L tuners
Similar looking massive base plates but with different details on them, a much longer integrated base sleeve around the post, no pin and no clue left as to what company may have made them either. My first thought was that there were 2 different companies making this type of tuners, on second thought I figured it more certainly means that the Tokai and Greco/Fernandes tuners were made on different machines or with different casting molds, and these machines could have been located in the same factory.
Other F-style machine head models and prices
Back to the Tokai vintage tuners - thanks to Sigmania's 1981 parts catalog we can see that the the tuners were not exactly cheap:
Not sure I'm calculating that right, but at an average exchange rate of 250JP¥ per dollar in 1981, 5,500¥ was $22. That would be $74 MSRP in today's money for the nickel type tuners. A set of comparable (plain, non-locking, non-HAP) Gotoh SD91-05M-N tuners is currently $42-50 street price.
36% more expensive: Tokai "Deluxe" tuners in gold ("S-091")
Going further through the price list, the ST42 Springy and the Silver Stars below the SS48 got the "S-092 Fender type chrome" tuners, which seem to be the just the well-known "trapezoid" tuners inside, but with a more F-like, crest-shaped cap:
"S-092 Fender type chrome" tuners on an SS38
Which companies produced the incredible amount of these tuners, or where they were made remains a mystery, it seems that production may have been outsourced for these early on.
The SS48 and above got the "Rotomatic" style, among us better known as "octagon" tuners. This SS60 is notable for the little Gotoh logos (which are usually absent on those):
Past the "golden" era
Still within the "golden" era, the new original Tokai models increasingly used modern, Schaller/Rotomatic-style sealed tuners, of which some (but not all) clearly show that they were made by Gotoh:
Tokai Custom Edition tuner
At some point yet to be determined (could be the 90s), the cast base plates with their improvements and the alignment holes disappeared on Goldstars and were replaced with original design Kluson-style tuners, now identifiable ("JAPAN") as Gotohs on Japanese guitars and Hanchang (small "HC" stamp on the base plate) on the models made in Korea.
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